There always seems to be an upset or two in the opening round of the Region VI basketball tournament.

For the Barton men’s basketball team, the goal was simply not to be one of those upsets.

It was a challenge, but the Cougars avoided that upset, winning 87-80.

As usual, there were upsets. One came in Arkansas City where Northwest Tech, the No. 7 seed from the West, upset Cowley, 87-84.

That means Barton will take on NW Tech Sunday at 3 pm in Park City’s Hartman Arena instead of the East’s No. 2 seed. Barton swept NW Tech this season.

Pratt, the 6th seed from the West, also pulled the opening round upset as six of the eight teams in Hartman Arena will be from the West.

“It’s the post season, so any win is a a good win,” Coach Craig Fletchall said. “We did some things better tonight than we have been doing. I know it was good to get back home.”

Indeed. Barton was playing at home for the first time in 10 days.

Barton led 1-0 before any time ran off the clock as Neosho was whistled for technical for dunking in pregame.

Neosho was without the services of its head coach Jeremy Coombs, who was ejected in the regular season finale and was forced to sit out this game.

Once the game started, it looked like it might be an easy night as Barton shot out of the gates to an 8-0 lead. But by the time the media time out came around, Neosho had an 18-14 lead with 9:43 to play.

A 7-0 run by Barton put the Cougars up 33-26 with 4:53 to play. Barton would not trail again, but the Cougars had to work for the win.

Anthony Enneking started the 7-0 run with a jumper, Martin Vogts made a 3 from deep in the corner then added a fast-break layup for the 7-point lead.

Vogts continued his big first half, giving Barton its biggest lead of the half at 38-29 on another trey with 2:41 left. Barton extended that lead to 45-35 at half as Vogts scored 14 points.

Neosho came out firing to start the second half, hitting back-to-back 3’s before an Enneking dunk got Barton on the board.

The Panthers would not go away. The lead was down to 54-52 with 14:30 to play before Elijah Ford tipped in a miss. He then followed with a fast-break dunk and added another offensive rebound and basket for a personal 6-0 run and a 60-52 lead.

But, as the theme of the game was nearly the entire way, Neosho battled back to make it a 68-64 lead with seven minutes to play.

Ford ended the run with a 3-point play to make it a 71-64 game.

The lead grew to 77-69 on a 3-point play by John Williams with 4:07 to play. A steal and dunk by Williams following a timeout and the Cougars had comfortable 79-69 lead.

Neosho once again made a run. This time a 7-0 run cut it to 79-76 with 1:56 to play.

Once again, it was Ford to the rescue. Another 3-point play gave the Cougars an 82-76 lead.

The Cougars would put the game away at the free throw line, hitting 5-of-6 for the win.

Vogts led Barton with 17 followed by Ford with 15 – all in the second half. Leondre Washington added 14. Akeem White finished with 13 off the bench and Williams added 10.

Ford had a double-double with 13 rebounds as well.

Now it’s to the quarterfinals and NW Tech. Barton beat NW Tech 80-71 in Goodland then won 101-94 in Great Bend. The winner of that game gets the winner of Seward County and Independence in Monday’s semifinal round.

Barton 87, Neosho 80

Neosho  35 45 – 80

Barton    45 42 – 87

Neosho (15-16) 80

Tolefree 6-12 2-2 16, Benton 3-3 1-2 7, Taylor 3-7 0-0 6, Reliford 3-7 0-0 8, Yan 0-1 0-0 0, Adup 4-10 5-7 15, McMiller 7-12 7-13 23, Cordes 0-1 0-0 0, Taliaferro 2-4 0-0 5. Totals – 28-57 15-24 80.

Barton (24-7) 87

Vogts 6-13 1-3 17, Washington 2-6 9-12 14, Ford 6-11 3-4 15, Caldwell 3-7 0-0 8, Enneking 2-3 2-2 6, Andrews 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 4-8 1-1 10, White 4-7 5-5 13, Morris 2-2 0-1 4. Totals – 29-57 21-28 87.

3-pointers – Neosho 9-24 (Adup 2-3, Tolefree 2-5, Reliford 2-5, McMiller 2-5, Taliaferro 1-1, Cordes 0-1, Yang 0-1), Barton 8-25 (Vogts 4-11, Caldwell 2-5, Washington 1-3, Williams 1-4, Ford 0-1, White 0-1).

Rebounds – Neosho 31 (McMiller 8), Barton 33 (Ford 13). Assists – Neosho 9 (Taylor 4), Barton 16 (Vogts 4). Steals – Neosho 7 (McMiller 3), Barton 10 (Williams 3). Blocks – Neosho 0, Barton 3 (3 with 1).

Turnovers – Neosho 14, Barton 12. Fouled Out – None. Technicals – None.

Region VI Bracket

Men’s Bracket

First Round at higher seed

W1 Seward (25-5) receives a bye

E4 Indy 71, W5 Garden 66

W3 Barton 87, E6 Neosho 80

W7 NW Tech 87, E2 Cowley 84

W2 Hutch 98, E7 Allen 88

W6 Pratt 68, E3 Cloud 56

W4 Colby 77, E5 Butler 70

E1 Coffeyville (28-2) receives a bye

Quarterfinals at Hartman Arena

Sunday, March 3

W1 Seward (25-5) v E4 Indy (15-15), 1 p.m.

W3 Barton (24-7) v W7 NW Tech (14-16) 3 p.m.

W2 Hutch (24-7) v W6 Pratt (15-16), 5 p.m.

E1 Coffeyville (28-2) v W4 Colby (18-13), 7 p.m.